[Avodah] hypocrisy in halacha

[Zev Sero]

Eli Turkel wrote:
>> 1- There is a difference in one's responsibility to a brother
>> and one's responsibility to others. To take a clear case,
>> ribis. The pasuq refers to the borrower as achikha. If your brother is
>> stuck needing cash, charging him interest is a little callous. When it's
>> a stranger, interest is more acceptable. The pasuq explicitly tells you
>> that ribis isn't immoral, it's a matter of ahavas Yisrael and achdus.

> I think ribis is a bad example. The normal activity is to charge ribis and
> the prohibition of ribis is a chiddush and so applies only to Jews.
> I don't think that in the middle ages there were complaints that Jews
> lent with interest instead of a giving the King a free loan.

Of course there were.  Not from the kings, who could just default on the
loan and kick the Jews out if they wanted, but ordinary borrowers would
regularly complain about the Jews demanding interest from them -- and
often about the Jews demanding repayment altogether!  Every so often
they'd just kill the Jew and keep the money.



> I think the main criteria is how would feel if the situation were
> reversed.  If a Jew died because a Xtian doctor who was on the spot
> said he doesn't work on sunday except to save other Xtians  I assume
> there would be a great outrage over the antisemitic attitude.

And yet the SA (OC 330:2, YD 154:4) - and even the MA! - expect them to
accept this from us, and *doesn't* permit it mishum eiva.  The mishum
eiva heter came later (how late?), when they saw that in practise it
did provoke eiva, perhaps as they became less religious themselves.
The ChS (on the side in OC 330, and quoted at a bit more length by the
Pitchei Tshuva in YD 154) permits it "im yesh be'eva zu cheshash sakanat
nefashot"; it seems that this was a relatively new sha'alah in his days,
and not settled halacha.


> Both Moslem and Xtian countries in the middle ages (and sometimes
> today) had laws discriminating against Jews. I doubt that many modern
> day people feel that is entirely appropriate.

But what implications should this have?  So what if people feel that
way?

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas